Dawn in Normandy
by The Titanium Spartan
Summary: After a slipspace jump gone wrong, Chief, Kelly, and the Arbiter are stranded in the Mass Effect universe. After a rescue from the Normandy, shortly after retaking Rannoch, Commander Liam Shepard decides to give them a chance, as they will need all the help they can get against the Reapers.
1. Chapter 1

_Dawn in Normandy_

Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect or Halo universes.

A/N: This is an AU so there will be some deviations from the ME 3 plot, and some things I use in the story may come from other writers such as the quarian language from Calinstel, and I will say this now so that it doesn't seem like I am taking credit for these. Other inspirations come from venomRED, Bahoogasmif, etc. Also since there isn't a whole lot of information regarding Halo 5 at the moment I will not be using a plot relating to that.

Some pairings to start out are Shepard and Tali, as well as Kaidan and Liara.

My Shepard is male, Caucasian, black and styled hair, dark blue eyes, spacer, War hero, and Paragon.

Please, any constructive criticism is encouraged as this is my first fanfic.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1

**/**_**UNSC Infinity**_**, Earth orbit, 2558, 0530 Earth time/**

_What's that constant beeping noise that keeps getting louder and louder? I can't think or sleep what the hell._

Finally the beeping ended when a fist hit the virtual alarms source a little harder than intended, as sparks started emit from it. John 117, the Master Chief sat up from his bed to wake up and check his area. His quarters were still dark and quiet until Roland spoke through the com.

"Master Chief? Captain Lasky and Lord Hood would like to meet you in the conference room."

"Thank you Roland," he said, rubbing his eyes.

With that, he finally turned and got out of the bed and made his way over to the small table were his armors undersuit laid. He quickly pulled it on, only having to tug in a few places, and proceeded to leave for the Spartan deck. Once there he made his way over to one of the few machines reserved for his Spartan ll team. The process began and his armor locked on and systems powered up. Now that John was situated he made his way back to the elevator to head for the conference room. The ride was quick and it wasn't very far from there, just a short walk down the hall and door to the room opened up to reveal the good Captain and Lord Hood talking.

"Ah Master Chief, thank you for meeting on such short notice." Hood said turning to face him.

"Not a problem sir, is there another mission for my team?"

"Indeed there is Chief," Lasky said as he activated to holo-screen," A few days ago, on the edge of Sanghelli space, a freighter and its escort just disappeared off the grid. Normally the Elites would handle this themselves, but since the freighter was human with an Elite escort, they've decided to ask for help."

"How does my team fit in Captain?" Chief asked, but before Lasky could respond, Hood beat him to the punch.

"Yourself, a Sanghelli delegate, and one other of your team will take a small scouting ship to the area and investigate."

"Sir, with all due respect, I don't have time to babysit."

"No worries Spartan, you will find that my skills haven't lessened since we last met." An odd voice said from behind.

John turned around to see the Arbiter, clad in golden ceremonial armor with a cape strapped to his shoulders. Chief noticed he still had the same energy sword used to kill Truth attached to his hip, and though he would not openly show it, he was glad the delegate was someone he could trust.

"Arbiter, glad you could make it. Chief, I have some things left to discuss with Captain Lasky. The ship is being prepped in the hangar and you get to choose which of your team will go. You are dismissed." Hood said

"Yes sir." Chief said with a salute and followed the Arbiter out the door while accessing his com.

"Kelly. Armor up and meet me in the hanger in 30."

Of his entire team, John trusted Kelly the most. She had been with him since the beginning and they both took Sam's death hard. She was reliable and a good friend, something he had been relying on since Cortana's death.

…

Kelly was reviewing some of the Spartan-lVs War game data when she got the call. _Ugh. Probably just another pirate clean up again._ She thought to herself. She already had the lower half of her armor on and it wouldn't take long to get on the rest. Her armor was a slightly upgraded version of the Mark Vl armor with an EVA helmet and was a silvery color instead of the standard army green.

After the top half was set, she grabbed her helmet before heading towards the elevator. Once inside, Kelly hit the button for the hanger deck and looked at her reflection in the wall. _Wow_, she thought, _I still look kinda young. Cryo-sleep definitely helped_. The elevator doors opened, stopping he train of thought, to the busy hanger where she saw John walking towards a ship with a golden Elite. _This oughta be good._

…

John looked at the ship before him. It was a little bigger than a longsword fighter, but it had a small armory and crew quarters with it. Though it was designed more like a cross between a frigate and a prowler, just on a small scale. He looked around and saw Kelly walking towards him with her helmet under her arm, though he noticed that she kept here brown hair down at shoulder length, instead of in a ponytail.

"Hey Kelly, I see you've upgraded your armor even more." He greeted.

"And I see that you're still wearing that raggedy old Mark Vl armor. Seriously, you haven't even buffed out that mark on your chest plate." She quipped back.

John internally chuckled as he remembered jumping out of Truths ship. He then turned to the Arbiter to introduce him.

"Kelly, this is the Arbiter, the Elite delegate that will be with us. He is trustworthy and a hell of a warrior." John said introducing the alien behind him.

"Ah I've heard of you. Glad you're with us." Kelly said turning to him.

"Indeed. Shall we begin preparations Spartan?" Arbiter said facing John.

"Of course, you two can go ahead, I'll catch up."

As they walked up the ramp, John thought to himself that that went over well for first impressions. Has Kelly grown that much? No matter, they had a job to do and they will get it done quickly and hopefully quietly. He forgot about that train of thought and continued up the ramp himself and headed towards the bridge, where Kelly was setting up in the pilot's seat. John decided to take the copilots seat next to her to look over the readings and first noticed the name of their ship _Dawn of Time_.

All readings seemed to check out, everyone was getting settled, and so he decided to get under way. He opened the coms to connect with _Infinity's _bridge.

"_Infinity, _this is the Master Chief. We're ready and about to get underway. Just need confirmation." He called out. While waiting for a response, John saw the hanger doors open and a return message called out of the com system.

"Master Chief, you are clear to proceed. Good Luck." With that he turned to Kelly and nodded to her signaling they were all good. The ship started to rise and move forward at a slow rate until they cleared the hangar doors. Speed picked up and Kelly announced they were far enough for a slipspace jump. He gave the go ahead and stared to relax as he saw the portal open… Until alarms started going off.

"John, something's wrong. The portal is destabilizing and I can't turn us away. Its pull is too strong!" She almost yelled it. He quickly looked at the portal again and realized they probably won't make it. But he couldn't show that.

"Everyone hold on!" He looked one more time as a white light enveloped them. Then everything turned black.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A/N: Here is an update. I completely changed the last part of the chapter, as people complained with good reason. I will admit that I was tired and just wanted to get through the chapter, but that is no reason not to create something worth reading and I apologies. Hopefully this will make up for it.

**/**_**Normandy, **_**Perseus Veil, 2186, 0915 Galactic Time/**

_Does this unit have a soul… Keelah'Se'Lai. _Shepard woke up with beads of sweat on his brow and his heart starting to race. It wasn't as bad as the other nightmares, but enough to make him sweat a little. As he took in his surroundings, his cabin of course, he tried sitting up, when he felt weight on top of him. Shepard looked down to see Tali clinging to him, the blue light of the fish tank seeming to make her face glow in an ethereal like way. Some of her raven black her was strewn across her still surprisingly human face. He gently brushed the strands away and behind her small round ears. A smile grew on his face just from looking at her and then grew bigger as he remembered the previous night's events. They finally had a chance to really talk. About Rannoch, about quarian and geth peace, about them. Eventually they ended up in bed, with Tali's suit and Shepard's clothes thrown around the floor, until they eventually fell asleep holding each other in a tight embrace.

He planted a light kiss on her forehead and started to sneak out of the bed when he heard a sleepy moan to his side. Tali's eyes started to open, their moon like glow putting him in a trance as he stared into the silvery orbs with white irises, and she smiled looking up at him

"Hey." She said sleepily.

"Hey there beautiful, have a nice goodnights sleep?" Shepard responded his smile growing bigger by the second.

"Why do you keep smiling like that?" She responded with a giggle. "And yes I did, especially with you here, Liam."

"I keep smiling because you're so beautiful, that's why."

They both started to laugh, until Joker came over the intercom.

"Hey commander, sorry to 'interrupt' anything, but something odd just came up on our sensors, and EDI and I have no clue what it is. You better get down to the bridge and I already told Garrus."

A small sigh came from Shepard's lips. "Okay Joker, I'll be right down." With that the intercom closed and he looked back at Tali.

"Well we should probably get ready huh."

"Okay my Captain." She said slyly and got up to go to the shower, when she stopped, turned around and said "I still can't believe you made Garrus XO."

"Not officially." He said and chuckled a little.

As she entered the bathroom, he got up and started to collect the pieces of her suit and folding them. He set them down on the table with her _realk_ on top and then grabbed his own clothes and threw them in a drawer, to wash later, and grabbed another set of Alliance on duty uniforms that he and most of the crew wear around the ship, to set on his desk. Not a moment later, Tali walked out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel he keeps for her in there, and walked past him with a smile before moving past him to put on her suit. He smiled back and walked toward the shower. He was only in there for a few minutes, cutting some time by leaving the stubble that started to grow on his face, and after drying off, he took some of the gel his mother got him on her last shore leave and applied it to his hair, combing it up and slightly over. Leaving the bathroom, and putting on the uniform, Shepard and Tali walk out of his cabin and into the elevator. After pressing the icon for the CIC he turns to her and says. "Do you want to go to Engineering first?"

"No. I'll go with you to the bridge first and if it's nothing I'll head down."

He nods in response and the elevator doors open to the CIC. After a quick hello to Traynor, they both went up to the bridge to see Joker and EDI bickering over something again, while Garrus just watched. Garrus noticed the couple walking towards the bridge and saw his chance.

"So Shepard, get tired of 'doin it all night' or did you not even last that long." He said with that turian grin of his while Joker laughed both at the joke and Garrus's use of human air quotes.

Shepard noticed Tali blush a little, even behind the mask. "You better shut your mouth Garrus before I bioticaly throw you down the hall, or have Tali pull her shotgun on you." He said jokingly. Garrus just laughed and shook his head, and even though he's known since the Collector mission, he was still happy for them. Shepard was like a brother to him and Tali a sister.

"So what do we have Garrus. Must be really important if both of us have to be here." Shepard said getting back on a serious note.

"We're not sure. It seems that a ship just appeared out of nowhere after a small black hole like event occurred on the edge of the system. It doesn't match any ship design we know of, even for Reaper ships. But the oddest thing was that EDI didn't detect any sign of eezo on that ship. Ultimately it is a complete unknown. I say we should check it out, but it's your call." Garrus explained. No eezo? Black hole event? This doesn't make any sense.

"How big is the ship, and how far out is it?" He needed more info.

Joker spoke up this time. "A little smaller than the _Normandy_, Commander and only about twenty minutes out."

He thought about it for a moment, and decided it couldn't hurt. "Alright set a course for it. Garrus, inform the rest of the ground team to armor up for a boarding search. Also, since we don't know if there is any breathable air in the ship, they should bring helmets or breather masks as well."

"Of course Shepard." Garrus responded. All three of them walked towards the elevator then took it down to the armory, picking up team members along the way. The door opened in the shuttle bay and everyone went towards their locker to get ready. Shepard was putting on his regular N7 armor when he noticed Kaidan and Liara talking almost the entire time. _Ok something is up with those two_, he thought to himself as he adjusted the last strap and grabbed his helmet before moving over to the work bench next to Garrus upgrading his Mantis sniper rifle, and James going over his Typhoon assault rifle and Piranha shotgun. Shepard grabbed the M7-Lancer that Bailey had given him a while back and did a once over inspection. He preferred this model over the Avenger because of it was slightly better in almost every way. Next he grabbed a standard Predator pistol that he upgraded with a higher ammo capacity. Finished he looked around at the team. Javik was being his regular moody self, Tali was going over her suits systems and how they were working with the new armor she got, Kaiden and Liara were still talking while EDI observed, and Garrus was schooling James in weapon upgrades. Joker came over the intercom next with some new info, "Hey Commander, the ship doesn't seem to be responding to our hails and they don't seem have a shuttle bay, but it does have an airlock we can attach to."

"Ok, get us there and we'll head up to the airlock."

"Roger that."

Turning to face the crew, he has to raise his voice slightly to get everyone's attention. "Okay everyone; we're gonna board the ship via airlock so let's head up there, but first remember that these are going to be close quarters." Everyone nodded in understanding, while Garrus, being the only sniper, switched to his Phaeton. Everyone boarded the elevator and did last minute checks of weapons and armor before opening up to the CIC. The group headed towards the airlock when Joker called out, "Hey Commander. You might want to look at this." With Shepard at the head of the group they walked over to the viewport and saw something unexpected. A few small gasps could be heard, but the only audible word was a quiet _Keelah_ from Tali. The name of the ship was _Dawn of Time._

…

John slowly regained consciousness and he realized he was still alive. Looking around he saw that he was still in the co-pilots chair and Kelly was starting to wake up as well. All systems except for life support and gravity seemed to be offline and the Arbiter was pushing himself of the floor, having been thrown out of his seat when entering the portal. Turning back to Kelly he asks, "Kelly, you okay."

"Yeah," she said, "just a little disorientated at the moment. Give me a minute and I'll start looking into the ships systems."

"Do it, How about you Arbiter?"

Finally getting into his seat the he replies, "I am alive Spartan."

Accepting it as a good enough answer, John turns back to Kelly, "What is the status of the ship?"

"Most systems are down, life support, gravity and some door controls are still active but everything else isn't. I don't even think it can be repaired, so we are pretty much just dead in the water."

"Even coms?"

She just nodded. _Okay, well what to do. Coms are down so that means no beacon, navigation is down too so we don't even know where we are. Hmm. _Kelly broke him out of his thoughts.

"John. What do we do?"

"Are you sure you can't fix anything, even from the outside?" He said, hoping for something.

"I highly doubt it."

He looked at the two figures before him, and them looking at him in return and he realized they only had one option left. "Well we only have one option. Sit here and wait for someone to find us. Until then let's go through what we have. The Arbiter and I will go through the armory, and Kelly, you can see if you can find something of use in the crew quarters or storage." Both of them nodded in understanding and went towards the areas assigned. John joined the Arbiter in the armory and saw that it was fully stocked for a small room. All the weapons were working and ammo was accounted for. Arbiter was looking over one of his Covenant Carbines when said, "You know Spartan, I never knew your name until today. There was never any record that the Covenant had that told of it, only referring to you as 'Demon'."

"I'm not surprised. A number of people know it, but only a select few call me by it. It doesn't bother me either way." John said back.

"And I assume that is why you have not asked about mine. Though you did not ask, I will tell you anyway. It is Thel' Vadam. If you recognize it, it probably is not for anything good."

He did recognize it. The reports said he was a high ranking fleet commander, and that he led the invasion fleet to Reach, and then followed the Pillar of Autumn to the first Halo ring. He was responsible for the death of almost one billion human lives. Johns training and gut told him that he should kill Thel right now, but his mind and something else told him that he could be trusted. In the time that they worked with each other, John new the Arbiter was loyal to his people, and when the Brutes had turned on them, that was the tipping point. And once Spark told him the true purpose of Halo, he came around. Now, Arbiter has down nothing but work with humanity to improve relations.

"Yes I recognize it." He said.

"And…?"

"And nothing."

"You feel nothing?" Arbiter asked genuinely confused. Before John could answer, Kelly called out from the bridge

"Hey guys you might want to see this."

Thel and John just exchanged glances, an understanding between them absorbed in a few seconds, then walked out of the armory to where Kelly was standing. "What is it Kelly?" he asked, wondering what is going on. She simply pointed towards the viewport at the front of the ship. They saw another ship incoming with a sleek, curved hull and what looked like wings with thrusters. It was painted in white, blue and black with writing on its side in…English? Yet this looked like no ship they have ever seen, now pulling up along the side of their ship.

"It looks like they are going to board. Thel, go into active camo and find a dark corner. Kelly, you and I will hide behind the doorway to the hall. Let's go."

In a few seconds, Thel was out of sight and John and Kelly were quickly arming up. While grabbing and loading a shotgun, Kelly asks "Thel?"

"Later." John says as he attaches his assault rifle on his back and magnum in its holster. Now finished they move into position to see the door start to open. _Alright, who are you._

…

"That doesn't look like any human ship I've ever seen loco."

"Took the words right out of my mouth, James." Shepard said. He snapped out of his trance and faced the team. "Alright guys, here's the plan. Tali, you and EDI try to find out what happened to the ship, everyone else with me to search for survivors or anything we can use." A wave of nods was his answer and he moved towards the airlock. A jolt through the ship let them know they were connected and Shepard grabbed his Lancer of his back and noticed everyone else do the same with their own weapons, and pointed at the door as the decontamination cycle finished and the doors opened to a dark room, with two chairs and consoles to the left, and to the right a short hallway. The room seemed clear so he signaled Tali and EDI to get to work. Looking around the room one more time he lowered his weapon but stayed on guard.

"Tali, what have you got?"

"Not much Shepard. Life support and gravity are online but that's about it."

As Tali was talking to Shepard, James was scanning the room, aiming down his Piranha shotgun, when he noticed a slight distortion in a dark corner to the right of the airlock. Slowly approaching, and keeping his weapon raised, he didn't really notice at all, until he heard what seemed like a loud battle cry, and something hit his weapon out of his hands, grabbed him by the throat and raised him a good foot and a half off the ground. Shepard heard the cry, as well as everyone else, and spun around, weapon raised to see James floating in air. Then out of nowhere, like Kasumi, an 8-foot tall alien with four fingered hands, and mandibles, with legs like a krogan, in golden armor, holding James by the neck and looked him in the eye. In the other hand the strange alien activated some kind of sword made of energy.

"Let him go and put that down!" Shepard shouted

"You first." A deep voice said, and two large figures, one in green armor and a boxy helmet, and the other clad in silver armor with a rounder helmet. Shepard eyed the three unknowns, wondering who they are, but they won't get anywhere like this and to get James out of there, they needed to cooperate.

"Alright, we can work this out," he turned his head to speak with the group, "put'em down guys." Everyone looked at the three, then Shepard, then each other, before putting down their weapons. "Alright, we set down our weapons, now let go of our guy."

The one in green looked at the alien and nodded, and the alien released James, who fell to the ground gasping for air, and then moved back towards the ground and sat down still trying to catch his breath.

Next the one with the deep voice said "Now take off your helmets or breathers." Everyone looked at each other, wondering if they should or not. Finally Shepard looked straight at the unknowns and started to take off his helmet. Tali started to move forward to stop him, but Garrus held out his hand to stop her, and everyone watched Shepard as he finally finished. He was able to breath, so it was an okay atmosphere, and nodded at the others to take theirs off as well and so they did. Three humans, an asari, and a turian all stood helmetless, a prothean and an AI who didn't wear helmets, and a quarian who couldn't even take off the mask all stood in front of the three unknowns.

The one who kept talking faced Tali, "That means you too."

Before anything else was said, Shepard stepped forward and said, "She can't. She's a quarian, they can't take they're suits off because of their immune systems."

The three looked at each other and asked, "What's a quarian?"

Now everyone was confused and less on edge, so Shepard decided to take a chance.

"Look, we are just as confused as you are. How about we put down the weapons and talk this out. I can tell you this. We are not pirates looking to loot. Our ship picked you up on sensors but other than that we had no idea, so we came to investigate. Is that good enough?"

The three looked at each other trying to figure this out. Finally the leader said, "Okay, we'll talk this out."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the giants stowed away their weapons. Shepard faced them again and addressed them. "Thank you. I am Commander Liam Shepard of the _SSV Normandy_ and this is my team." Turning to face them, he addressed each and every one. "This is Tali' Zorah, our combat engineer, and a quarian. This is Garrus Vakarian, turian, Gunnery Officer and non-official XO. Major Kaidan Alenko of the Alliance, the human government we both serve. Liara T'Soni, our information and archeology specialist, she is an asari. Lt. James Vega, Arms Master, and also Alliance. EDI, our ships AI. And lastly, Javik, a prothean, who's race was wiped out fifty thousand years ago."

Nodding slightly, the leader spoke up. "Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117, John. This is Saprtan-087, Kelly, and this is Thel' Vadam, Arbiter of the Sangheli." Kelly visibly tensed at the last introduction. Now that the formalities were over, everyone relaxed a little though were still definitely confused. Garrus was the next to approach.

"Do you mind telling us what happened?"

The other three looked at each other and then back to the group, when Kelly spoke up, "What did he say?"

The team was now even more confused than possible, until Kaidan spoke up for all to hear, "They must not have translators Commander."

"Alright, you and Liara head back to the ship and get them some omni-tools, and make sure they are programmed to translate. It'll have to do."

"Yes Commander." was their only response as they went back through the airlock and back into the ship.

"What are these omni-tools?" Arbiter asked in a deep voice similar to Admiral Andersons.

"They are holographic interfaces that can be used in multiple ways from a weapon to something like a cell phone." Shepard said, "And Garrus had asked if you would mind telling us what happened."

Kelly spoke this time, "We were leaving for a mission, when the slipspace portal, our means of FTL travel, started to destabilize and we were pulled in. It's kind of like a black hole."

EDI now stepped forward, "Shepard that would explain the black hole event and why we did not detect any eezo readings."

Nodding in confirmation, Shepard was about to ask another question when Kaidan and Liara walked back in with the omni-tools, and walked up to the two Spartans and the Elite. They attached them to their wrists and showed them how to activate them. After backing away, Shepard turned to Garrus, "Say something."

"You guys good?" Garrus said.

"Yeah we're good." John said

"Ok now that's that cleared up, where do we start?" Shepard said. He then thought of a question he knew everyone was thinking. "Where are you from?"

They really weren't sure how to answer the question, so they just said what was on their mind. "We're really not sure where we are now. And the fact we see different aliens, weapons and armor doesn't really help." Kelly said.

"Shepard I theorize that the destabilization of the portal they mentioned has sent them to a different universe. Our universe to be specific." EDI said

"How can we be sure though?" Shepard said. Liara was next to speak up. "I can help with that Shepard. If they will let me, I can join my mind with one of theirs to see if this is true and even share some information with them."

"Ok. Kaidan take her back to the ship afterwards if she needs to rest."

Liara approached Kelly who looked at John. He nodded to her to let know to go with it. "Please take off your helmet." Liara stated. And she did so revealing a woman looking like she was no older than 35, with shoulder length brown hair and faded blue eyes that stared right back at Liara. She reached up and touched both sides of Kelly's face and closed her eyes. "Relax. Embrace eternity!" Liara's eyes turned black and Kelly's rolled into the back of her head. A few seconds later they returned to normal, stumbling back a little.

"M-My God. Those Reaper things. That's what they do. Harvest you and turn you against each other." Kelly said in disbelief, as the rest just nodded. Liara spoke now sounding exhausted, "And you all fought a thirty year war… against each other." Kelly, John, and Thel just nodded back. "Its true Shepard, they are from a different universe. Kaidan if you could please bring me back I would be very grateful." Kaidan then lead her back to the _Normandy_.

"EDI. Send them everything we know on the Reapers and the races," now turning back to the other three Shepard said, "Do you have any way for us to get some info, if you will allow us."

John looked at them and considered it. _They just gave them some really important info, and they want to know about our universe. Though our terminal is fried. _"You could try, but our terminals and consoles are fried."

"With Tali and EDI anything is possible." Garrus stated with a small chuckle.

John acknowledged his statement and faced Tali. "Ok. It's down the hall on the right. Just walk through the door and it's on the far end of the room. You might need a miracle to get it to work."

"Thank you." Was all Tali said as she and EDI followed the directions given by John. For the next 10 minutes John and the Arbiter reviewed the information given to them on their new omni-tools while Kelly rested a little. She would look over the info later. When John read through the information regarding what Shepard had been doing for the past three years, he had to shake his head at the stupidity of the Council. How and why would they not act on the information that was brought to them?

Tali finally contacted Shepard. "Liam, we've finally got it working. EDI's extracted most of the info, but some was not recoverable. It is being sent to everyone now." As they returned, the team was already looking at the info from the terminal. After another five minutes of reviewing info on both sides, Shepard decided now was the time to take the chance.

"Well now that we've said all we could, and you have seen what our position is right now with the Reapers, I have to ask. Will you join us?"

John thought about it for a minute. Kelly seemed slightly disturbed by what she had learned from Liara, which was definitely not common. Thel just nodded to him and so he made a decision.

"Yes Commander. We will join you." John said

A/N: Sorry for not saying this earlier but this Shepard is a Sentinel, so that you can get kind the best of both worlds between tech and biotics.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Sir, we've detected an odd disturbance in the heart of geth space. It appears that a ship just randomly appeared."

"Thank you, you are dismissed." His assistant bowed slightly before turning and leaving the room. The Illusive Man took a quick drink while reviewing the data before him. Tapping his communicator he contacted his assistant, "Jonas, send a probe into the system to investigate, and send the _Dallas_ to wait outside the system. If they don't report anything of worth, recall them."

"Yes Illusive Man," and they connection was cut. This was certainly odd. Possibly a new tool._ The Reapers will be mine. Humanity must take its rightful place in this galaxy. And no one, not even Shepard, will take that away._ He took another drag of his cigarette and looked over the data once more. _Yes Shepard. You will fall._

…

"Do you guys have any equipment to bring on board," Shepard said to John.

"We have a fully stocked armory, if we could take some of the guns, and the ammo crates, we should be good. The other equipment for armor or weapon repair, we can get ourselves."

Shepard nodded in understanding and turned towards James, "Go get Cortez and help them get the weapons and ammo to move them down to the shuttle bay, then meet the rest of us in the War Room."

"Yes Commander," James said with a salute, and left the room to get Cortez. Garrus approached next. "Shepard if I didn't know any better, I'd say Cerberus already knows about this ship so we should make this quick."

"Cerberus? That's the rogue human group, yes?" Arbiter asked

"Yes. Their leader is indoctrinated by the Reapers and he is certainly not an ally. He claims to be working for humanities best interest but everything he touches becomes corrupted." Shepard said before opening his coms to call James. "James if you guys could double time it that would be great. We will help move stuff."

Facing the rest of the group, "Guess we should get to work huh? EDI, get back to the ship and keep reviewing the data. Tali if you want to get back to Engineering feel free too, just meet us back in the War Room when the call comes."

"Of course Shepard," she said before going back to the ship with EDI. James and Cortez arrived and they all moved into the armory, to see it fully stocked with odd weapons. James let out a short whistle as he saw them all. "Nice guns" he said to no one in particular. In ten minutes time, one of each weapon, UNSC and Covenant, was moved onto the _Normandy _along with the ammo crates and repair kits. The group had just finished the decon cycle when the airlock door opened and Joker started to talk without turning his chair. "So Commander, mission success? I didn't realize you had to take an hour and a half save some sorry assessss… Oh." Joker finally turned his chair around to see Shepard standing with his arms crossed and a raised eye brow, with John, Kelly, and Thel standing behind him. Neither party said anything, just stared back at each other until EDI leaned over to Joker and tried to whisper, "I will explain Later Jeff."

"Yeah Joker, don't you have a ship to fly?" Shepard said with grin. Joker turned back around defeated and Shepard just chuckled. Motioning for the new comers to follow him, he starts explaining, "Don't mind him. His jokes are worse than they seem," and he laughed even more when an 'I heard that!' came from the bridge, "This is the CIC the main operating center of the ship." When entering the side passage, he told the two guards to let them pass and put them in the _Normandy's _systems.

"This is the conference room and through that door," indicating the door on the right, "is the War Room. EDI tell the team to meet in the War Room." Entering the room and walking past the holotable with the hologram of the Crucible on it, Shepard and company enter the com room. "Traynor, can you get me Admiral Hackett?"

"Yes Commander," was her only response. He turned and faced the other three. "Admiral Hackett is currently the highest ranking military leader left in the Alliance, and is in control of the Crucible project, the hologram you saw in there. The only other Admiral with the same authority as him is Admiral Anderson, who is leading the resistance on Earth. After the initial invasion, our government was all but wiped out and we lost almost 2/3rds of our fleet. He already has the same info that we recovered from your ship, so he'll probably just ask questions." At that moment Hackett came over the QEC. "Commander Shepard, I assume these are the three you mentioned." He said with his normal all business tone, and his scared face all serious.

"Yes sir."

"Yes well let's get started"

…

Tali had only been in Engineering for about 20 minutes when the call from EDI came in. She was just about to run some trials with Ken on the power systems and their draw on the Tantalus core. Adams chuckled at her frustration.

"Duty calls again ay Tali. Don't worry, I can run those trials with Ken." He said turning back to his console.

"Aye lass, we're good down here, go see what the Commander wants." He said with his partially thick Scottish accent. She could only sigh. She still wasn't used to them being so willing to do more just for her. Yes they knew about her relationship with Shepard, and she was obviously part of the ground team, but she didn't like leave all the work to them. At least Adams hasn't changed from the time on the SR-1, so it only felt right to have him stay Chief Engineer.

"Ok, hopefully it won't take too long." With that she left her console and headed to the elevator, finding it surprisingly empty. The elevator opened up to the CIC and it was only a short walk to The War Room. Inside everyone was already there, standing around, talking, or both while waiting for Shepard to come out of the com room. Not a moment later, he walked out of the com room with John, Kelly, and Thel. He walked down to the holotable to address the team.

"Hello everyone. I just finished speaking with Admiral Hackett. I think it's time to go into detail about our mission and situation with our new friends here. Garrus." He motioned for his friend to start. Garrus stepped forward and pressed a button on the table, and the image of the Crucible changed to one of the galaxy.

"It's been about a month and a half since the war started. The red areas represent systems controlled by the Reapers, though with our stealth systems we can go virtually anywhere. Our mission so far has been to secure alliances between the races and in doing so Shepard has pretty much done the impossible."

"Garrus please." Shepard said, not wanting any praise.

"He's right loco. I mean you've already got the turians and krogan working together by curing the genophage. And more recently the quarians and geth. And plenty more than that before this whole war started." James said chipping in.

"Ok guys we get it. Garrus please continue." Shepard said holding up his hand.

"As James said we already have the turians, krogan, quarians, and geth committed, and after the recent attack on the Citidel, the main station for galactic government, the asari and salarians have also aided, mostly with the Crucible, but they have also committed a few fleets as well. Other resources and help have been found along the way. And that's pretty much the jist of it."

"Thank you Garrus. Now in regards to being on the ship," he turned to face the new team members, "there are a few rules, but overall it's pretty much free roam and do what you want within reason. The crew and I, minus a few on the ground team, are Alliance but I'm still a SPECTRE and this is my ship, so we do things my way. Overall it is pretty lax, and if I stop by, it's likely I'm just there to talk. We can only do this if we work together, so it's good to get to know each other. Any questions?"

They all shook their heads no, but before they could continue on Garrus chimed in again. "Yeah that's how it is, though a certain engineer might get a little special treatment." He said with another grin and a small chuckle from everyone else. John stepped up this time, "I don't get it." Everyone started to laugh again, this time EDI spoke, "Commander Shepard and Tali became physically intimate in their fight against the Collectors and their relationship has continued since." Now everyone was in a full blown belly laugh as Tali wrung her wrists and looked down while Shepard just face palmed and said with as much sarcasm as possible, "Thank you EDI. Uh how about we just start the tour."

…

"This is Deck 3, the Crew Deck…," Shepard was still talking, but what caught Johns eye was the memorial wall. It reminded him of the memorial on Earth. He had only seen pics but the effect was still the same. These 'feelings' were still new to him, so he never paid them much attention, but Kelly could see right through his guise. Her eyes stared right through his visor and straight into his.

"Something wrong John?" Kelly asked

"No, nothing. Just… remembering." He said

Shepard walked up next with the rest of the group, "Everything ok Chief?

"Yes sir. If you don't mind me asking, who were these people?"

"First, at ease Chief. You don't absolutely have to call me sir when on the ship. And to answer your question I suppose we would have to start from the beginning," looking at the wall he saw his mark, "Jenkins died on the first mission of this whole ordeal three years ago on Eden Prime. Ashley was a marine that had joined up with us on Eden Prime, and she died on Virmire, protecting the makeshift nuke we had set to destroy Sarens base of operations. Pressley and most of the other crewman on here were killed in the attack on the first _Normandy_ over Alcheara, six months after stopping Saren. Mordin Solus was a salarian scientist, and one of the first recruits on this _Normandy_ to fight against the Collectors. He was insane, brilliant but insane and talked a mile a minute. He died making sure the genophage cure was dispersed on Tuchancka. Thane Krios was a drell assassin also recruited to fight the Collectors. He was surprisingly spiritual for an assassin. He was killed helping to protect the Council during the attack a few weeks ago. Legion was the latest. He was the geth on board the ship and was the last person we recruited for the Collector mission. He sacrificed himself just two days ago, to give all geth individuality. Before he only referred to himself as 'we' because of the multiple programs in him, but in his final moments, he referred to himself as 'I'."

"I see. Thank you Commander, I will definitely look into all the info you gave us to help understand more. We can continue now." John said

Nodding to him, Shepard continued on, "These are the crew quarters and the women's bathroom. And this here is the Starboard Observation Deck." The doors opened to the open room with a few chairs couches and bookshelves. An overall peaceful room. Arbiter approached next, "Commander if I may, I would like to request this room."

"Uh I'm sorry Arbiter, but Kaidan already has this room" Shepard stated, but before the Arbiter could say anything, Kaidan spoke up.

"That's ok Commander, I was already in the process of moving out."

"Where to Kaidan?" Shepard asked confused.

"Oh you know loco, only with his favorite asari." James said with a grin and an emphasis on 'favorite'. Shepard looked at Liara and Kaidan. She was blushing and he was rubbing the back of his next, each with a smile on their face. A grin of his own formed on his face as he looked and then pointed at the two. "You two know this is going to be discussed at dinner so be prepared to talk." Turning back to face the Arbiter, he said, "Well I guess you could move in as soon as he's finished moving out."

Heading back the other way Shepard showed the men's bathroom, life support, and the Port Observation Deck. Moving into the main area, they were shown the mess, Liara's room, the Medbay and Garrus even showed of his guns in the Main Battery. While entering the elevator, Shepard suggested, "You guys might want to check in with Dr. Chackwas when we're done or else she'll hunt you down and drag you up there herself. Both Garrus and I have learned that the hard way."

"No matter how tough you are, that woman will strike fear into you enough to make you want to sleep with one eye open," was all Garrus had to say on that fact.

The doors opened to the Engineering deck and Shepard once again took lead, with Tali in tow. Shepard pointed to the left, but before he spoke, Javik decided that he was done with these primitives and went back to his quarters. "Aaand where Javik is walking is Port Cargo and to the right is Starboard Cargo. It is currently unoccupied, so Chief, Kelly, if you're ok with sharing a room you can have it."

"Thank you Commander, it won't be an issue. What about duties around the ship?" John said.

"For you I would recommend working in the armory. That way you can help maintain the weapons you guys use," Shepard said. Turning to Kelly and Arbiter he said, "For you Kelly I would just say to go where you are needed. For you Arbiter I truly have no idea. I may come speak with you to get to know you better and learn what you are good at." Thel acknowledged what Shepard had said and understood.

"Tali here can show you guys the Engineering compartment if you guys want and down there is the shuttle bay and armory," Shepard said starting to bring the tour to a close. "I'll let you guys get settled and if you have any more questions feel free to ask EDI from anywhere on the ship. I'll be in the CIC for now," with that Shepard entered the elevator and went back up to the CIC.

Seeing how no one asked about the rest of Engineering, Tali said goodbye and went back to work. Garrus, Kaidan and Liara acknowledged the rest and went back to deck 3. "Well I guess I could help you guys get your stuff if you want." James said

"Thank you but we can handle it," Kelly said back

James just shrugged and went back down a level. Now the three were standing around looking at each other. Arbiter was the first to speak. "As I am still waiting for my room, I shall go see the doctor now."

"Ok, we'll see you later Arbiter." John said before entering their new room. It wasn't much bigger than his old quarters. There were two cots and a couple crates, along with the windows to the left, and what looked like a garbage compactor in the back. Finally he took off his helmet. His grey eyes looking tired and he ran a hand through his short brown hair. After about 35 years since he was abducted, his hair was growing back into a standard military like cut. He turned around and saw Kelly staring him down.

"What?" What happened next actually surprised him. She threw her helmet at him and shoved him against the wall.

"THEL' VADAM! Are you INSANE! Have you even read the reports! Do you know what he's done?" She screamed in his face.

"Yes I have Kelly, and I do know what he's done," he said calmly, "But he and the rest of the Elites are one of the main reasons humanity still exists. And he has done nothing but willingly work with me and humanity so that we are less hostile and can work with each other. Think about it. His race was manipulated for thousands of years with the promise of false salvation. Then those he served orders his branding of shame, and the death of his race afterwards. Then he learns the truth of their so called salvation and finds the only other race with a common enemy. It was more than just the Flood, more than just honor and revenge; it was about the continuation of all life in the galaxy."

"I know but he is still responsible for the death of almost one BILLION humans!"

"Listen Kelly, you can trust me. If not him for now then trust me. How do you think Tali felt at first about that geth that was once aboard their ship?" She finally started to back down and let out a loud sigh.

"Ok John I trust you. Just don't expect me to get all buddy buddy with him."

"Fair enough."

…

Dr. Chakwas was sitting at her desk when the door opened and the new alien walked through. The four fingers were new but the mandibles, legs and overall height of the creature were somewhat familiar. He stopped and looked at her then spoke with a voice like Andersons.

"Dr. Chakwas?"

"Yes and who would you be?"

"Thel' Vadam, the Arbiter of my people. I came for a 'checkup' as you humans call it."

"Ah yes of course," she then stood up and activated her omni-tool, "I'm just going to run some scans and tests so that I can learn more about your physiology and then I'll take a blood sample." He let out a low grumble and stood in place as she waved the device over him. She looked back at it and kept saying to herself about it being 'interesting'. She looked back up at him, "Ok now could you please remove part of you armor on the arm."

He relented a bit, but saw the fire in the older human's eyes. "Oh come on, a fierce warrior like you can't be afraid of a needle. Unless you're like Wrex." He let another grumble slip out and removed part of his armor and held out his arm. The procedure took all of 5 seconds and she scanned the sample. She let out a small gasp as she reviewed the data.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It seems that your DNA is a combination of dextro and levo. Don't worry it just means that you don't have to worry about what kind of drink or food to eat to put it simply. I'll let the Commander know. You may leave now."

…

_What a day. _Shepard thought to himself as he leaned over the galaxy map. "Joker any sign of Cerberus?"

"Just a probe Commander and EDI took care of it. All quarian and geth forces that have come to investigate have been alerted that we have it under control."

"Ok. Well we've got all that we could out of the ship so we should destroy it. I don't want to chance Cerberus getting the upper hand. Bring us around on an attack run and aim for the sweet spot. Once that's done, head for Cyoane. Hackett has a mission for me and I think this would be a good time to see how our new friends do in action."

"Yes Commander."

The ship rocked a few minutes later from the main gun and then the explosion. Any trace of that ship should be gone.

A/N: Yes I have the Elites be dextro and levo DNA, but how are we supposed to know. So I altered it a little as this is an AU.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"I better get to work," was all John said as he set down his helmet and walked out of the room, heading for the shuttle bay. Kelly sat down at one of the cots and looked out of the window to the deck bellow. _He's so dense, but at the same time right,_ was all she thought. She still didn't completely trust the Arbiter, but she fully trusted John. A long yawn came from her as she realized she was still tired from the mind joining thingy from earlier. Laying down on the cot and closing her eyes, she decided not to think about it anymore. It was in the past, one that didn't even exist in this place. A new universe, new galaxy, new life. A new start.

…

Exiting the elevator, John looks around, making sure to find every nook and cranny in his field of view, his strategic mind taking over. He spots the crates filled with their weapons and repair kits, stacked at the work bench area. Moving towards it he begins to open the crate, noting that it is filled to the brim with ammo magazines, clips and belts, and starts to take them out and realizes that he has no place to store them.

"Hey big man, want some help?"

James walked over to John and looked over the ammunition before him.

"We can set up a locker or two to store all this if you want," he stated seeing how much there was inside the crate. Weapons were his specialty and with Cortez they could set anything up.

"Sure, thanks," John responds.

"Hey Esteban, help me get some lockers filled up here!" Grabbing another group of magazines James said, "Shall we get started?"

…

"Spirits, work damn you!" Garrus sighed in frustration as he tried once more to get his calibrations to work to their upmost capabilities. EDI then came over the intercom.

"Garrus, while scanning the ship we just returned from, I was able to recover some interesting information from its databases."

"What, more of their history?"

"No. Weapon and shield schematics for their ships." This triggered his curiosity. He wondered how their weapons compared to theirs. Though shields weren't his specialty.

"I'll take a look at those weapon schematics EDI, but I'm no expert in shielding. That's Tali's area."

"The schematic have already been forwarded to her and the others are being sent to you as well." His omni-tool beeped letting him know that the information was received. He opened the file and right away his eyes widened. The Mass Accelerators alone could ultimately turn one of their ships into dust and tear through a Reaper destroyer in one or two shots. The automated weapons could bring down Reaper barriers in no less than 10 seconds. The laser based weaponry and super MACs as they called them could rip right through a Sovereign class Reaper. The possibilities were astonishing and there was no way these weapons could be mounted on their own ships unless they were altered. If weapons were this powerful in their new friend's universe, he could only guess at the shielding. Changing to his contacts he called Tali.

"Tali, have you seen these specs, they are amazing. What are the shields like?"

"_They're amazing Garrus! They're extremely resilient and can block more than solid objects like our kinetic barriers. They seem to be altered to defend against what seems like plasma based weaponry. If I could send these to Rannoch and the geth, we could upgrade all our shielding to be stronger. What about weapons?"_

"The regular Mass Accelerators could completely decimate our ships and smaller Reapers. They also have laser based weaponry and things called super MACs that could cause some serious damage to Reapers like Sovereign. If I could send these to the Hierarchy, they could be modified to fit our ships."

"_Then we should bring these to Liam to see what he thinks." _

…

"_Ships gone and we're headed to the relay now Commander. ETA to Cyone 36 hours."_

"Thank you Joker." Shepard stepped down from the galaxy map to head for the elevator when it opened up and Tali and Garrus stepped out.

"Liam we have something to show you," Tali stated as they exited the elevator.

"Sure what is it?"

"EDI sent us schematics for weapons and shields that she got off the ship," Garrus said, "They are extremely advanced and we think if we could send them out, they could be altered for our use."

"Where exactly would you send them?" Shepard questioned. He didn't want these specs just getting out.

"I could send the shielding ones to the Fle-; I mean Rannoch and the geth. My people alongside the geth could find a way and fast too." Tali said.

"Ok, well what about you Garrus?"

"Well my people are no tech geniuses but we know weapons. I could send them to the Primarch."

"Ok. Go ahead and send them, we could use all the help we can get."

As omni-tools lit up, they all moved towards the elevator. Opening on Deck 3 Shepard was surprised that Tali didn't go back down to 4. Garrus went back to his calibrations while Shepard grabbed some rations and a cup of coffee, since he hadn't had breakfast yet, and sat down at one of the tables in the mess. A box with a few belongings sat outside Liaras door, Kaidans stuff probably. Tali sat next to him with a food tube in hand as she was probably hungry herself.

Doctor Chakwas walked out of the medbay, mumbling to herself over a datapad and almost bumped into a crewman coming out of the crew quarters. After the tour had just seemed to slow down, as it did a lot during FTL travel, and he didn't have much to do. _Hmm. I should probably figure out where Arbiter and Kelly should work, if they want to. Arbiter should be on this deck, I'll go see him. _At tap on the shoulder brought him out of his trance.

"Liam?" Tali said with slight irritation in her voice

"Hmm? Yes dear."

"That's the third time I've called you. I'm going back to Engineering and I'll probably stay there a little after my shift is over."

"Sorry Tali, I was just lost in thoughts. I'll see you later then?" and she left to go back to the elevator. He finished off the god awful military rations, praying Gardner was still there. At least he knew how to make ok food with them when there wasn't any of that Citadel food still around. Finishing his coffee and returning the mug to the sink he starts off to Starboard observation. The Arbiter was sitting in the middle of the floor between the two couches, with his legs tucked under each other and head bowed slightly. The room seemed dimmer than before. He could see two, what looked like coat racks, but soon realized they were for armor, in one corner of the room. The Arbiter himself was wearing a robe like garment, almost like those in modern and ancient Japan. Clearing his voice slightly.

"Excuse me Arbiter, do you have a moment?"

His head rose slightly and he got to his feet, or hooves. While turning to face him, Liam could see part of a reddish, pink mark on his chest. His orange eyes glowing in the dimness of the room.

"Yes Commander what can I do for you."

"Just came to talk, maybe figure out what you can do aboard the ship, if you wish."

"Of course Commander, something to preoccupy me other than meditations would be nice. If you don't mind I would not like to go to deep into my history. At least not yet."

Motioning for him to continue, Shepard wondered what he could be hiding. But after all the crew he has dealt with, he learned it's best not to force them.

"In my service to the Covenant, I was among the youngest to achieve the rank of Shipmaster, and soon the youngest to achieve the rank of Fleetmaster. I lead the ships under my command proudly throughout the war, until certain events changed that. I became the Arbiter, the will of the Prophets, and when they sent me to certain death, and betrayed my people, I made sure the puppet master was silenced and honor regained. I have the mind of a warrior, and tactician among other things. Working through ship to ship combat became a specialty of mine, as it was very common for the fleet that I commanded to be sent to battle."

"Hmm. Would you consider being a tactics officer near the bridge or in the War Room. When it comes to fighting a space battle against Reapers, some pretty fancy ideas are almost always needed, and for someone of your particular, expertise, it shouldn't be too hard to adjust."

"Yes, your enemy does seem rather unpredictable due to their strength. Very well Commander, if that is where I'm needed when not in combat, I shall be there."

…

"Just set that there and, perfect." Kaidan had just finished moving what little he had into Liaras room. Good thing he didn't have much either, cause her room was packed with equipment, something he was probably going to have to get used to.

"Do you know that you talk to yourself quite often Kaidan." Liara quipped with a smile.

"Ha yeah, well, every guy does. Garrus, James, Shepard, Joker, hell even grumpy old Javik. I guess it's just something we do."

Laughing lightly Liara turns away from her terminal to address the info drone Glyph.

"Glyph if you could continue to monitor these I would be grateful," turning back to Kaidan, "Well if you're finished I could sure use a distraction. Would you care to get some dinner."

A smile crossed his lips and in a joking manner, bowed deeply and tried to speak like a knight of old. "Of course milady. Upon what conditions do you wish to dine?"

"You are such a dork." She said with another laugh and offered her arm to him. He gladly accepted, looping his arms in hers as they walked out of her, their room to an almost full mess hall. In addition to the normal crew that ate around this time, Shepard and Tali sat together talking; James was cooking something of Latin origins he presumed, Joker had his mouthful attempting to tell a joke to Hawthorne, and Garrus was just entering from the Main Battery on his omni-tool.

After grabbing some grub, the pair sat down across from Shepard and Tali. But before anyone could say anything, a hushed voice came from Garrus. Realizing that he was trying to hide the conversation, the four listened carefully to see if they can figure out who he was talking to.

"Yes Chloe I'm okay… Yes we are heading back to Citadel space now… Well no, not the Citadel just yet but… I know, I know I promised, but with the war and everything… I know you worry and I'll make it up to you… Okay I'm sorry got to go; I think we have some eavesdroppers here."

Looking back at the table to see four of his friends staring him down made him worry. _Had they heard? Shit! What if Chloe found out, she would kill me? Okay Garrus play it cool. Small talk. They're your friends. Just. Act. Cool._

"Uh hey guys. How's the food? Still suck?" Garrus said trying to act cool. If turians could sweat, he would be right now.

"Oh my pride. That hurt Scars." James called out from the kitchen.

Tali took the lead for this roast. She wasn't going to pass the chance on making her turian big brother look like a fool.

"So Garrus was that an important call? Seemed a little hush hush."

"Uh yeah! It was a call from the, uh, from the Primarch about those weapon schematics. I just had to answer a few questions," he said, stuttering on a few words.

"Oh. And does the Primarch have some turian codename like, say, Chloe" This time it was Liara, joining Talis side of the discussion while Shepard and Kaidan laughed at the two of the ganging up on poor old Garrus.

Hi mind was racing. No clear thoughts or responses popped into his head. He had the look of sheer terror on his face, one that only friends can cause. He tried to formulate a coherent sentence while stuttering and praying to the Spirits for strength, or just something to say. The sly genius, Garrus Vakarian, Archangel of Omega, and one of the most important subordinates to the Primarch of Palaven, was embarrassed to the point of having a loss for words.

Shepard decided to end his friends' torture. Though it was really funny to see his best friend, his brother, cornered by two women like this.

"We're just busting your balls Garrus. Come on and sit down," he said while trying to regain his composure. Garrus sat at the end of the table, looking down. Turning to face the other couple across from him.

"Besides there is a new couple here on the ship. And I'm sure we would all love to hear the story." A grin grew on his face as the other two started to blush. All other conversations ceased and they all leaned forward, hoping to get in on the gossip. Kaidan regained his composure first, at least enough to speak.

"Well, it started after you died Commander. Tali was obviously the most upset but had to return to the flotilla. Liara here had no idea what to do."

"I needed a place to stay and I guess a shoulder to cry on. Kaidan was kind enough to let me stay with him on the Citadel, until he returned to active duty," Liara said solemnly, "Over that time we just kind of grew close, but then I got the info about how the Shadow Broker had your body and Cerberus could bring you back. I didn't want to worry him about Cerberus, so I just left and ended it."

"By then I had already received new orders from Anderson, so I was about to be shipped out anyway," Kaidan said.

"Mars was the first time we saw each other in almost 3 years, and after the Citadel attack when he joined back up, something just clicked again." Liara said, seeming to end the story. Kelly walked in now, coming from the elevator still clad in armor.

She just grabbed some food before moving to the opposite end of the table where there wasn't as many people eating. Shepard, as well as everyone else noticed that she was still wearing her armor.

"Hawthorne." He said getting the man's attention.

"Yes Commander?" Hawthorne responded.

"When you are done could you see if we have any uniforms big enough for Kelly and Chief."

"Of course Commander," was all he said before leaving the table.

Now Thel joined the group at the table, the chairs seeming a bit too small. The mark on his chest was more visible than it was before and James, being James, was fairly interested.

"Hey that's a nice scar you got there Arbiter. Though it looks more like a burn or a, uh…"

"A brand." Thel finished for him, only looking at the table.

"Yeah that."

A long sigh came from him. His head finally rose to meet James gaze and stared right back at him. "That's because it is."

Everyone was now silent as conversations ended and people stopped eating, even Kelly seemed interested. His gaze shifted over to Shepard.

"Remember that certain event in which I was made Arbiter, Commander?"

He nodded, remembering the conversation from earlier in the day.

"My last assignment as Fleetmaster was to guard a ring world known as Halo. The rings were built by a race known as the Forerunners, and it was said the rings were sacred. Our path to salvation. The ring was destroyed under my watch, and I was called by the High counsel and the three Prophet Hierarchs to explain my actions. I was labeled a heretic for my failure and publicly humiliated on the capital city of High Charity, by being branded with the mark of shame after my armor was singed and ripped from my body. Though I was also to be executed, the Prophet of Truth made me Arbiter, knowing it would lead me to my death. It was also a way to help maintain the Covenant as a whole."

"How was the ring destroyed?" asked Garrus.

"Me."

Everyone looked up to see John leaning against a bulkhead with his arms folded. His helmet was off but the rest of his armor was on, like Kelly. He must have been standing there for a while.

"But how, why?" Tali asked.

John thought about it for a second. The memories were still there, like it was yesterday. Finally he decided to indulge their curiosity.

"After the ship I was on escaped the planet Reach…"

…

"Wow I can't believe they went through all that." Tali said after she had unsealed her visor. She and Liam had finally returned to their cabin after an almost 2 hour story telling session. Both sides had exchanged stories of their exploits, and Garrus and James seemed to almost make it a competition.

"Yeah, makes some of what we did look like nothing." Liam said tiredly.

"Don't say that. We've saved the galaxy a few times now and plenty of other things." Her helmet now removed, and _realk _down, she let her hair flow from its prison.

"I know. Come and lay with me. I'm tired and we'll be in system tomorrow."

She smiled at him as she moved towards the bed and crawled in. Even with her suit on she could still feel the heat from his body as she cuddled up beside him.

"Of course _saera."_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"We're almost there Commander, better get your team ready."

"Copy that Joker. EDI tell Chief, Kelly and Arbiter to armor up and meet me by the shuttle," Shepard said before turning and leaving the galaxy map. The ride down was quick and quiet and the doors opened to the shuttle bay. John was looking over his rifle and he had a magnum at his hip. Kelly was loading a shotgun and two SMGs, and Arbiter was just standing by the shuttle, carbine on his back and energy sword at his hip. After donning his armor and grabbing his weapons, Shepard moved towards the Kodiak. Cortez was already set up in the pilot's chair.

"All set here Commander." He said before turning back to his console.

"Alright," stepping out real quick, "Alright guys lets go."

Everyone stepped on with no problem, except Thel had to duck a little. The shuttle lifted off and exited the _Normandy._ A few moments later, after quick call from Hackett, they touched down at the facility. Entering the fuel reactor Shepard spotted Captain Riley and her team.

"C-Commander Shepard i-it's an honor, my men are working to clear a way n-now," she stumbled out.

Confused by the way she was speaking, he finally realized what was causing it. Motioning to his team he said, "Oh yes the honor is mine, and please don't worry about my team. What the situation Captain."

"O-Of course Commander. Radiation seems to be blocking our path."

Just then a large container moved back on crane.

"Got it Captain," one of her men said.

"Good work Kozlo. Commander we'll work on reactor two."

"Got it Captain," he stated and led his team to the crane console. After clearing the rest of the containers, the radiation venting controls were in sights. It was eerily quiet, like something was wrong. John heard the vents start up and saw the radiation clear.

"Captain Riley the radiation should be clear. Moving to reactivate the reactor," Shepard said, activating his coms. Moving down to the fuel rod controls, and a quick press of a button, the process started. Shrieks called out as Husks appeared of nowhere.

"Husks and a Marauder! The latter has shields so be careful." Shepard called out. The lead husk was dropped quickly from a round of Kelly's shotgun. John followed her up with a quick barrage from his assault rifle. Shepard was astonished at how quickly they reacted, until rounds from the marauder peppered his shields. Snapping back to reality, he could see a husk was practically on top of him. He had just enough time to bring out his omniblade, and slashed it across the upper chest. One last husk dropped from his Lancer and the area appeared to be clear, except the marauder was nowhere to be seen. Scanning the area, he couldn't see it anywhere. A sharp crack was heard behind him and the changed turian was standing there, arms wide as its chest was pierced by the Arbiters energy sword, smoke rising from where the blade emerged from its body.

Nodding briefly to Thel, Shepard activated his coms.

"Captain Riley what's your status."

"One casualty Commander, nothing too serious. We're moving to fix a few things now"

The stations VI came over speakers stating there was a coolant leak.

"Commander it's Cortez. You have to seal the moderator tanks to continue on."

"Roger that Cortez."

They sealed the tanks without a hitch, and Riley had contacted him to let them know that they were ready for restart. Shepard hit the restart console and listened as the machinery began to power up around them. Cortez came over the coms once again.

"Commander, Captain! I'm tracking lots of movement heading your way."

"Damn it! Defensive positions people."

Chief moved behind a crate, rifle raised and ready. Kelly crouched behind some pipes with Arbiter. Husks came pouring out of the nearby stairway while Marauders jumped down from gangways on the upper levels. The husks had greater numbers but were easily cut down, the rounds from the Spartans weapons causing massive damage to the unarmored cannon fodder. Even the barriers provided by the nearby generators didn't stand a chance from the rounds that came pouring out. The marauders were a bit more difficult. They hid behind crates as cover, and were only out every so often. As soon as one popped out of cover, Arbiter put a few rounds into it from his carbine, dropping its shields and Shepard finished it off with a burst from his Lancer.

This continued on for a few more minutes, each side exchanging fire until the last Marauder fell.

"Commander we're being overrun. Position indefensible, we are not going to make it!" Captain Riley shouted over the coms.

"Hold on, one of my people is coming. Kelly, get over there as fast as possible and get them out of there!" Shepard said.

"Yes Commander." And she took off running, faster than anything Shepard has seen. The doors to the reactor itself opened and the biggest of all reaper ground troops stood there menacingly.

"BRUTE!"

…

Overrun was an understatement. Husks, Cannibals, and Marauders filled the area surrounding Reactor 2. There was still about 200 yards between her and Captain Riley's squad, and she was currently pinned down behind a crate. The memory of one of her old missions came to mind and Johns voice appeared, _Let's sprint this._ She took a deep breath and charged out of cover. Her shields easily absorbed the rounds being fired at her as she pumped round after round into every enemy in her way.

Her shotgun clicked empty and she quickly switched to the two SMGs at her sides, firing a continuous storm of rounds. She vaulted over a group of pipes in her way, a Cannibal receiving a boot to the face on the other side. Finally reaching the Captain, Kelly rolled into cover and faced Riley.

"Get your squad out of here Captain, I'll hold them here and catch up at the extraction point."

"What? You can't hold them all by yourself!"

"You'd be surprised. Now go!"

Seeing as it was useless to continue arguing, Riley signaled her squad to get moving. She was wondering how in the galaxy that soldier was going to survive. Taking a quick glance back, she saw that Shepard's squad mate was pouring rounds out from cover. _God speed soldier._

Kelly watched Captain Riley and her squad leave. She raised the left hand SMG out of cover, sending bursts out to keep the Reapers at bay, while grabbing shells out to load her shotgun. Once the clip ran out, she tossed two grenades out, hoping that it will be enough of a distraction to reload. Everything seemed to slow down but her, like time means nothing and anything was possible. Senses heightened, and reflexes were sharper than ever. Spartan time. Stepping out of cover she brought her shotgun to her shoulder, and anything that got close was either blown in half, ripped to shreds by a storm of rounds, or received an armored boot or gauntlet to its ugly ass face. This continued till every last round was spent. Two more grenades tossed, and Kelly took off running for extraction, at almost 60 km. Before she knew it she was back at the extraction point with Captain Riley's squad and Shepard just arriving.

…

The beast fell with a loud thud. John placed his foot on its neck and fired one last shot into its head with his magnum. He holstered his weapon and stepped off the brute. Shepard vented his Lancer and Arbiter deactivated his sword. Cortez came back over the coms.

"Sir, you need to finalize the restart."

"Any word from Captain Riley or Kelly," he said before pressing the button on the interface.

"No Commander, no one is answering my hails."

He hoped that the worst hadn't happened, and left the console.

"Ok, head for the extraction point and we'll meet you there."

"Roger that sir." He said somewhat solemnly. Shepard holstered his weapon and moved towards the other end of the complex. He was worried how Chief would react if Kelly really had perished. There was nothing he could really say. He spotted Captain Riley and what remained of her squad by the entrance, but couldn't see Kelly. Had he just sent someone else to their death? How many more until this war was finally over.

"Commander, thank you for sending help. We wouldn't have gotten out of there if it wasn't for her."

John stepped forward, with a commanding but ever so slightly worried voice. "Do you know if she made it?"

"I'm not sure soldier. Last I saw, she was bunkered dow-," any further conversation seized as the sound of boots banging down the hall came from their right. Kelly reached them, having to practically skid to a stop. Her breathing was sporadic but not winded.

"Com-Commander, you made it. I think we should get out of here, not s-sure if I got them all," she said between breaths.

"Cortez, are you reading any movement by Reactor two."

"Negative Commander. She either got them all, or they pulled out. I'm on station for pick up."

"Roger that. Well Kelly they're gone now. Let's get out of here people."

…

The ride back to the ship was fairly quiet. Shepard seemed to be typing a message into his omni-tool, and everyone else just sat there not talking. Shepard read over his message once more.

_Garrus-_

_Newcomers are good. Better than we thought. Trustworthy and can raise hell on the field. Definitely assets to the team. Just thought you should know._

_ -Shepard _

Satisfied he sent the message and attached a small vid of the team taking down the marauders and brute from his helmet cam. He was glad that he finally got one of those, especially since both Garrus and Tali had one, the former with his visor and the latter with her helmet and mask in general. He leaned his head back against the seat. It may just have been another small mission, but it was enough to tire him out a little. The shuttle shook as it landed back in the hangar bay and the doors opened not long after.

He made his way over to his locker to store away his armor and weapons, while everyone else just set their weapons in lockers and left for the elevator. He hoped Hawthorne pulled through with the uniforms. He didn't want them to constantly half to walk around in their armor all the time. James came over and leaned against the lockers.

"Hey Commander, how'd the mission go."

He eyed James for half a second before a smirk grew on his face. Oh how little did the young marine know. "James. I think we may have found someone more loco than me."

His brows rose in surprise and he seemed really curious. "Tell. Me. Everything."

Shepard let out a small chuckle, before facing the marine, "Ok. So after we restarted the reactor, the maintenance room opened to reveal a brute and a few marauders. The marauders went down fairly quickly, but of course the brute is just a giant bitch to take out. I was moving along the left side of it while it tried to smash us. While the thing almost clipped me, Arbiter was a bit luckier. It tried to back hand him with that giant claw, when he just side stepped it and sliced right through it with that sword of his. Next thing you know, Chief slid under its stomach, finding a space between the armor and whatever insides it had, and stuck a grenade in it, rolling out the other side. The grenade detonated and the bastard came crashing down."

James was almost speechless and when he did speak it was almost an inaudible whisper, "Holy shit."

…

"Ah, actual clothes. Glad I don't have to keep wearing my armor through the ship," Kelly said as she tossed a pair to John. He looked at it questionably and decided why not. He started to remove his armor piece by piece and saw Kelly start to do the same. The pants and boots seemed to fit, but the shirt was a bit too small, so he decided to just wear the upper portion of his undersuit as a shirt.

"Well John, how do I look?"

He turned around and saw that the shirt actually fit her. Her shoulder length hair was nice, and she looked beaut-, wait what? Why was he thinking like this? She was a friend that's it. They were both are soldiers and don't have time for fraternization. He noticed a red splotch start to grow on the lower left side of her abdomen.

"K-Kelly..."

She was confused at what he was looking at. She touched her side and raised her fingers up to see them coated in blood. All the rest of the adrenalin in her system disappeared and she started to fall slightly until John caught her. They've dealt with combat injuries before, but usually on the field. They were used to being injured, came with being a Spartan, but for some reason this worried the both of them. How long has she had this injury and how bad.

"J-John, I… barely even felt… didn't even know." As the adrenalin faded so did her consciousness and he knew she wouldn't be able to even stand. He quickly picked her up and ran out of the room, hitting the button in the elevator for the crew deck, all the while trying to keep Kelly awake.

"You're ok Kelly. It's going to be ok," he kept saying, and as soon as the door opened, he sprinted down the hall straight for the medbay. Garrus saw him and tried to get his attention, but John was too focused on the task at hand. The doors opened swiftly and he went to the nearest bed setting her down carefully. Chakwas came over as quickly as possible.

"What happened?"

John snapped back to reality and faced the old doctor. "I don't know. We got back and put on these uniforms when I noticed the blood spot start to grow"

She pushed him away and removed her shirt, revealing a nasty flesh wound, with shrapnel lodged into her side. Chakwas immediately went to work sterilizing herself and ushering John out, much to his protest.

John now stood outside the locked door of the medbay, just staring at the red holographic interface. He was confident that she was going to be ok, but that still scared him a little. Scared? Fear? He wasn't even afraid when he hit the nuke after shoving that grenade in the Didact. What was going on with him? He felt a hand touch his shoulder and he turned to see Shepard and Garrus standing there looking at him.

"She going to be ok Chief?" Shepard asked. He had just gotten out of his armor after talking to James, when Garrus called him.

"Yes sir, she's tough and stubborn. Always has been."

Garrus gave a short laugh and punched Shepard on the shoulder, "Sounds familiar."

"Yet who took a rocket to the face just to one up me on scars. I'm sorry Chief, but how are you doing. Smartass over here said you looked worried as hell."

"I'm fine sir, nothing we haven't been through before. It won't affect my work and she'll recover," John gave a quick salute before moving back towards the elevator. He knew she would be ok, but she was the only real close friend he had left. Fred and Linda were friends yes, but they weren't as close. He already lost Cortana, and he would be damned if he lost another.

"That was a little… cold, don't you think Shepard," Garrus said still looking back at the elevator.

"Yeah, but I think I have a hunch why. I'll ask either one of them later. Hey were headed to the Citadel and we should be there in about a day. Why don't you and James take them there and show'em around? I'll be a bit busy and you still have some C-Sec contacts in case they get into any trouble."

"Sure, why not. I'll see you later Shepard," Garrus said before taking off for the main battery.

The trip up to the CIC was quick and when he got there he immediately went for the bridge. As he neared he could hear the telltale signs of a videogame being played. A smirk crossed his face when he saw what Joker was playing. An old Earth game from the 20th and 21st century called Mario or Super Brothers or something like that.

"Enjoying your game Joker," he said with a laugh.

"Jesus Commander you almost gave me a heart attack, and yes it was going well but I suppose I should stop."

"Don't worry, but if it gets in the way of flying you have to stop," Shepard stated becoming slightly more serious.

"No worries Shepard, I will 'put him in the dog house' if he does not work," came EDI's reply that sent Shepard laughing.

…

"Come on you _bosh'tet_!"

"Tali I don't think calling the drive core names will get it to work," Adams said. It was the beginning of third shift and Tali was tired and frustrated. Ken and Gabby had already left, while Adams just walked in, seeming to be more of a night person. Or whatever counts as night on a ship.

"I know but these trials are all coming up slightly off and I want to figure out why."

"I can handle this stuff here. I may be old but I can still operate an engine room, and with EDI up all the time, I'm sure we'll be fine. Get some sleep."

She was about to protest but thought better of it. She grabbed her tool and left for the cabin. Shepard was sitting at his desk looking tired and bored, his terminal not even activated. She let out an audible sigh as she dropped her stuff at her own small dresser.

"Rough shift Tali."

"You have no idea. Ugh, I need something to relax," she said finally taking off her mask, helmet and pushing back her _realk _and releasing her hair. The long jet black strands free from their prison. She just looked tired.

A smile crossed his face and he pulled her over to the couch, having her sit on his lap, back leaning into his chest. He traced the lines from her brow across her forehead until he reached he hair, where he started moving his hands through it multiple times before moving to her shoulders. She let out a slight moan as he massaged her muscles. He leaned close enough to whisper in her ear. "I think a shower will help to relieve this tension, yes."

"Mmm, yes I think so."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N:

Thank you all for your reviews, but I would like to state that if you are simply complaining about the **content** of my story, then don't write the review. If there is something wrong with **how** I am writing it, then please point it out and explain how I could make that aspect better.

If you simply don't like how, I the author, portray the characters or events, then maybe leave a quick note, but otherwise, please keep it to yourself.

I know chapters have been sporadic, but it depends on school, and school work, or breaks when they are written.

Chapter 6

"_Get out of there go, go, go." Kelly heard John yell. They were trying to make it off Reach, and the Covenant was about to overrun the facility. He made it back to the Pillar of Autumn, but she and Fred along with the other Spartans were still on the ground. A pelican started to approach, dodging the ground fire as best as it could before stopping to hover over the roof. Kelly, Fred, and a few others made it on, when Steven approached._

"_We'll hold them here Fred, you guys get out."_

"_We are not leaving you guys here Steven, get on now!" Fred shouted._

"_You don't have a choice. Now get out of here. Spartans never die remember."_

_The drop ship started to rise before anyone else could say anything and their radio crackled back to life._

"_Kelly, Fred, what's going on down there, where are you?"_

"_We are bugging out now in a pelican. Steven and a few others decided to stay and hold them off," Fred said into his coms._

"_Ok make it quick. Just… What? No we can't go sir. Captain I won't leave them, just wait a few mor…" and the line went dead. Their only hope now was to find a ship and get out of system. Kelly turned and saw two banshee's following them and the bright light of a plasma bomb going off inside the compartment. _

Kelly jolted awake and sat up quickly before grabbing her side. The pain was bearable but still there. The bright lights of the medbay almost blinding her. She leaned back carefully and saw the older woman in the room start to approach.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Chakwas. You took a nasty hit, and I'm surprised you didn't notice it before."

Kelly tried to speak but her throat was dry, she motioned for some water with her hands and the good doctor complied, handing her a small glass full. The water felt good, the cool liquid going down her throat. She was able to speak now that her throat didn't feel like a desert.

"I'm not even sure how I got it. But I was so, uh, focused in combat that I must not have felt the wound. I noticed that my shields had gone down, but after that I bolted."

"Hmm, well I've dealt with almost every wound out there, especially on this ship. And based on how you were wounded, I'd say it was a grenade. Though they are really only effective at short ranges, so you are either very lucky, or you armor is very resilient to only let a few pieces of shrapnel in."

She let out a small chuckle and looked back at the doctor, "Ha, no, Johns the lucky one. But our armor is really effective. Some of the shots simply bounced off me as I ran."

Chakwas was looking over the medical report on her datapad as she continued to talk. "Yes well I would like to keep you in here a while longer, and if any pain comes up once you leave, I'll give you some pain killers."

"Thanks doc."

Shepard walked into the medbay now, looking a bit tired. "Hello doctor, how's our patient."

"She's fine Shepard, you look worse than her right now. Still not sleeping?"

"I'm fine doc, really. We're about to arrive at the Citadel, are you all set in here?"

'Yes, I believe so."

He simply shrugged and walked over to where Kelly was laying. "Hello Kelly, feeling better?"

"Yes sir, don't worry I'll be up and ready in no time."

"Kelly, I swear to God, both you and Chief. I told you that you don't have to call me sir on board the ship."

"Apologies Commander, it's just how we are."

His face grew a bit more serious, as he tried to think of how he was going to word his next sentence.

"I've been meaning to ask about that. After I stopped Chief outside the medbay, he sounded a little cold. Just in how he was handling the fact that you were injured. And I thought it was somehow relating to how you both ended up, uh, like this." He said gesturing to her.

She sighed a little and looked down. Spartans weren't used to being social, let alone talk about how they became Spartans in the first place. The Commander seemed to trust them, and he had been good to his word so far, but she wasn't sure if it was the right time to tell anyone else. "You could say that, but I would rather not talk about it at this time Commander. I'm sure John would say the same."

"I understand Kelly. I hope Chakwas lets you leave soon, because I told Garrus and James to take you both out to the Citadel when we get there."

"Of course. Thank you Commander."

Shepard got up and walked back out of the room. He knew better than to pry at someone's life, unless they were willing to talk. His mother taught him that well. He entered the elevator and pressed the icon for deck two. The doors opened once more and he left heading to the galaxy map. He activated it and saw that they still had about another hour of transit. He went over what he had to do at the Citadel once again in his head.

_Make sure there isn't a problem with customs. Visit a few places for anything to buy. Meet up with Tali. Go see that Dr. Bryson Hackett mentioned. Got it._

…

"Citadel control, this is _SSV Normandy_. Requesting permission to dock," Joker said.

"Roger that _Normandy, _please proceed to docking bay D24."

For what seemed like the millionth time, Joker smoothly glided the ship into dock on the Citadel. Though he never truly liked it when they were there. Flying in space was his element. Whether it was simply bringing Shepard into a system, or the heat of a battle, his fingers flowed across the controls like water. Besides, there were plenty of things he could do on the ship.

"Jeff, do you want to go back to the presidium today," EDI said.

"No thank you EDI, I'm fine with staying on the ship." Just then he heard the airlock door open behind him. Shepard, along with most of the rest of the ground team, minus EDI obviously, and Arbiter it seemed. Kelly and Chief seemed to almost tower over everyone else. Garrus was pretty close, but everyone else was at least a foot shorter. As the doors opened to the gangway, Shepard called over his shoulder.

"Ships yours for now Joker."

"Yeah, yeah I got it."

He leaned back in his chair to look and make sure they were gone, and once he was certain that they were off he let out a quiet, evil chuckle. He pulled up his Galaxy of Fantasy game account.

"Jeff, shouldn't you be working."

"Huh, what, oh yeah, I can do that later."

…

John wasn't truly impressed with the dock that they were at. It looked more like an airport. People were moving all over the place, humans, turians, asari, and even a salarian, which they hadn't seen in person yet. They were definitely odd looking aliens, not to say the ones in their own universe weren't odd, but weird all the same. The size was, in comparison to Halo, pretty small. Another human began approaching their group. He had short blonde hair and looked like he was about middle age, judging by the lines all over his face.

"Shepard. You called me, asking to meet you here."

"Yeah, thanks Bailey. Just wanted to let you know that I have some new crew mates. They have never been to the Citadel, so I just wanted to let you know."

"I'm guessing you just want me to somehow put them in the system without keeping them here for a week."

"That would be better."

Bailey sighed, things had become really taxing since the Cerberus coup. "I'll try Shepard, but it's going to be harder now because of the coup."

"Do what you can, thanks."

Bailey turned to face John and Kelly. She had a replacement shirt on, and he still had the undersuit as a shirt. It felt so odd to be out of his armor in a place like this, but the Commander had insisted on it especially for the Citadel. No need to worry C-Sec about 'possible threats'. Bailey looked them up and down.

"I'm at least going to need names," he said.

John spared a glance at Kelly and he spoke up first. "John."

"Kelly," she said right after.

Bailey opened his omni-tool, and quickly put in the names before looking back at them. "And your last names," said tiredly still looking at his tool.

The two Spartans looked at each other, unsure of what to say. They never really new exactly what their last names were. They were Spartans, tools of war, created for war, and knew nothing but war. Too their old superiors, it didn't matter. They didn't care as long as they could get the job done. But here it seemed like they were trying to change them. Turn them from killing machines, into just normal people skilled at killing. They could never be normal though. His thoughts were broken when Kelly spoke up with the only answer they could really give.

"We don't know sir."

"What the hell do you mean you don't know," he said with a cross between confusion and annoyance. His eyes looked tired and cross, his brow furrowed. It was clear this man had been very busy and had a lot on his mind. Shepard once again came to the rescue of his crew.

"Look Bailey, we can figure this out later and I'll take care of it. I just wanted to get this started now, but I have other things to do right now."

He sighed once again and looked up back at Shepard. "Ok fine, Shepard. I have to get back to my office. Too much shit to do with all the stuffed shirts."

Bailey and Shepard left towards the elevator, and John had finally noticed that everyone other than James had left. Even Garrus slipped away somewhere. James noticed this as well before realizing that he was left to show them around.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered under his breath. "Well I guess it's my job to show you guys around."

"I guess so," John said dryly.

Doctor Chloe Michel was getting irritated. If that damn turian was going to stand her up, oh ho ho, he had another thing coming. She was just about leave the restaurant, when he came bumbling in. He looked so out of breath that it was comical, but she was in no mood for games. His casual clothes were a mess as if he had just thrown them, and that stupid visor was still on his face. He finally found his way into the seat and caught his breath.

"Hi," Garrus finally said. Her look said it all. This was not going to end well.

"You're late," she said, her look never changing.

"I know, I know. We just docked a few minutes ago and I tried to get here as fast as possible."

"Please take that visor off, we are in a restaurant."

"Right sorry." The difference in how he looked without that damn thing was actually kind of surprising. The scars weren't too bad either.

"You're staring Chloe."

"Huh, oh sorry."

He let out a short chuckle, and waved down a waiter. He turned back to her with that grin of his, the one that never failed to make her feel all warm and cozy inside. "How about we start this date over, I'm intrigued to know what you have been up too."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"…Of course, we can have ships there within 36 hours. Do you need any medical supplies?"

"No thank you ambassador, evacuating the colony is enough."

Shepard didn't hear the entire conversation, but that one word 'ambassador' caught his attention. Tali was talking to some turian, who had started to walk away. Seeing as how he didn't hear any raised voices, he guessed that it wasn't a problem.

"Ambassador?" he asked her, much to her own surprise.

"I'm negotiating for the Fleet while we are here. Huh. I think it was right here. Three years to the day," her voice sounding somewhat shocked if not saddened.

"What is it?"

"This is where Saren's assassins attacked me. Got me in the arm using polonium rounds. Worst fever I've ever had," Tali said with a slight chuckle.

"You never told me that. Who was that turian?"

"A colony representative. He was actually a clerk a few years ago."

Shepard had to arch an eyebrow at that, "How do you know that?"

Her head lowered a bit. He realized that this might be a bit touchy.

"I brought the evidence to him, asking to see the council. He…called me a suitrat and threatened to have me tossed off the station. I don't think he recognized me though."

Just the thought of someone insulting Tali pissed him off. There has been more than one instance where someone saw how protective he was of her. He was ready to storm off and find that turian, but Tali held up her hand to stop him.

"Liam I know that look. Please let it go."

He took a quick breath. She was right, always is. Hm, what would he do without her? "Alright, come on. Hackett said he wanted me to see someone."

"Ok."

…

The skycar landed at the office just down the presidium. It was fairly out of the way, not many people would probably notice it anyway. But inside was something else. Computers, vid screens, and other consoles or machinery were all throughout. Datapads and even paper copies of research strewn about. It seemed like every time they deal with scientists, their labs are always a mess. A tall, skinny, elderly man was standing there, talking to who seemed like his assistant.

"Ah, Commander Shepard. Admiral Hackett told me to expect you. I'm Dr. Garret Bryson," the man said, extending his hand. He grasped the man's hand for a firm shake, and he gestured for him and Tali to follow.

"I must say Miss Zorah I am surprised to see you here, but it will makes no difference. Hadley! Please gather the Leviathan data for us."

"Hackett said you had something important for me," Shepard said following him into the next room.

"This is task force Aurora, and we have been charged with finding evidence about the Reapers past."

"Easier said than done doc," he said with a slight smirk.

"Ha, that's true, but ever since their arrival, it has been easier to put all the pieces together. My team has been all over the galaxy following clues. As you can see, that piece of Sovereign along with all these different artifacts have been a big help. I would like you to help follow up on some of the bigger leads. Hadley where's that dat- Gah!

The shot came from right next to Shepard, and his assistant started to turn the gun on him. He tackled and pinned him to the floor before he could get a shot off. Holding him to the floor, he motioned for Tali to check on Bryson.

"This is Commander Shepard; I need C-Sec at my location now."

"The darkness must not be breached; the darkness must not be breached…"

…

"Wh-What? What's happening?"

Shepard's team was all standing there in a half circle, while two C-Sec agents were holding Hadley by the shoulders. And none of them looked happy.

"You tell me," Shepard almost growled.

"I don't know. One moment I was at the console and then the next it was…cold, dark… and there was a loud bang. Dr. Bryson…"

"That was you! You shot him and then you tried to shoot us."

"But I would never do that!" Hadley exclaimed. He wouldn't. He was always the good kid. Never fought, never drank, nothing. Why now?

"So someone else pulled that trigger, bunch of bull to me Commander," James huffed

"Commander, this does resemble indoctrination," EDI chimed in from a console across the room.

"Yeah maybe. He kept saying something about the darkness, I don-"

"The darkness. The darkness must not be breached. Turn back now." Hadley's eyes rolled back into his head as he collapsed onto the floor.

"Damn it. Get him to the clinic, see if they can figure out what's wrong. Everyone else spread out. See if you can find any clues."

The crew went about their search. Dr. Bryson hadn't even been able to set them on a path yet. It wasn't even noon yet and he was tired. Tired from the war, the deaths. They had three years to prepare. THREE YEARS! And nobody even listened. Sure he had people like Wrex, Anderson, and Hackett, but even they were caught up in plenty of other ordeals. And so it was placed on his shoulders. To hold the galaxy's hand while they fought for survival.

A datapad on the table over by the large glass wall, caught his attention. Somethings behind the wall just looked like junk except for the piece of prothean tech, which Liara and Javik studied closely, and another artifact like sphere, that glowed ominously. It appeared that the pad he was now holding contained a message for Bryson.

_Bryson, its Garneu. I found another one of those artifacts. Something's odd though. I'm going to crunch some numbers and burn up the rest of this travel budget, I'll be in contact soon._

"EDI" Shepard called out.

"Yes, Shepard," she casually said while making her way over to him.

"Is there any way to trace where this message came from?"

"Unfortunately no, though it seems that Dr. Bryson and his team was using a Galaxy Map search program to follow leads. Perhaps we could use it in a similar fashion."

"Do it. Gather whatever intel the team has found and use it to create some sort search pattern."

…

At first the search going irritatingly slow, as each new combination of search filters only came up with multiple systems. A few of the team had left the lab, either to return to whatever they were doing or back to the ship. Shepard was currently sitting on a crate he'd found, rubbing his eyes in growing frustration. The Citadel had entered its evening cycle, the lights all around the presidium ring dimming a bit and the fake sky shaded orange. A faint chime sounded success from the map, and he could see only one system had been highlighted.

"It seems we have found the system locating Garneu," EDI said.

"Finally. Let's get back to the ship and get underway, I want to get there as fast as possible."

Everyone left piled into the cars and sped off toward the docks. For most of the ride it was quiet, murmurs of what they were going to find or who exactly even. John broke that lasting silence in their car, simply by talking to himself.

"Can't remember the last time I was sent to extract someone out alive. I'm pretty sure it was to retrieve Captain Keyes from the Truth and Reconciliation."

Kelly punched his shoulder slightly, smirking as she did. "That because we were better for killing Covies, than babysitting."

"What kind of missions were Spartans sent on?" Tali inquired. She had been reading more of that info they found. It wasn't very complete, but that's were the two behind her came in.

"Search and Destroy mostly. Unless we were deployed to hold colonies against invasion," Kelly stated matter-of-factly.

"Hmph, holding colonies against invasion. Brings me back," Shepard said his eyes forward but not really focusing on anything on front of him. His squad had all but been slaughtered or deserted, while he alone had to face down ten thousand pirates on Elysium. Because of the damn Blitz, lots of good men died, while he walked away with a medal. The Lion of Elysium he was called, a hero. Sure as hell didn't feel like one.

"Liam! Watch where you are going!"

He snapped back to reality and quickly swerved away from the oncoming truck.

"And here I thought your driving was improving." Tali said, arms crossed and she was looking out the window.

"My driving isn't bad!"

"Do you want me to show Kelly and John the footage from all the times we were in the Mako, or when chasing Vasir through Illium."

He grumbled something to himself, finding it futile to continue the argument. Pleased with herself, Tali turned to give a quick smile to Kelly and John. She was pleased to see Kelly looking at least slightly amused, but John seemed to give her an almost stern look.

"Did you just use my first name?" he said, eyes unblinking.

"Uh, yes. Why wouldn't I, you're part of the crew."

His expression softened, even just a little, and he looked away from her. Tali turned to Kelly with a worried look in her eye. The super soldier just mouthed _later _to her. She was able to pick up on a lot of human gestures in her time aboard both _Normandy's_, so this wasn't exactly too difficult to understand. Kelly had also spoken to her a few times while on Engineering. Not that the other engineers were boring to talk to, just that it was nice to have someone new.

The car finally stopped back at the docks, and it seemed that they were the last to arrive. Once inside the ship and past the airlock Shepard turned left towards the cockpit, while the others left for the elevator.

"Joker, how fast can we be in that system?"

"About 19 hours Commander, not including time to search through the different clusters in that system."

"Then let's get there ASAP. I don't want the Reapers catching on."

"Aye, aye."

…

"_So James, what's it like working down there with mister 'talks to no one'? Has he beaten your pull up record yet?"_

"More like destroyed. He did almost 300 without breaking a sweat, Scars! I still haven't thought of a nickname for him yet," he replied through his omni-tool, while focusing on cleaning his shotgun. Garrus let out a small chuckle.

"_Word of advice; don't bother. He doesn't really seem like one to go for nicknames. Hell Tali told me he looked like he was about to beat her senseless when she used his first name."_

"Shit man. I don't think the Commander would he let him even try it, you know with him and Tali being together and all." Garrus chuckled a little, feeling a story about to come up. And he knew just which one.

"_You should have been there when we recruited her on Haestrom. Zaeed, Grunt, and I went with him on that one. I swear the shuttle hadn't even touched down when Shepard bolted out of it and started to fully sprint. We barely even fought any geth other than clean up. Most were either ripped to shreds by biotics, filled with bullet holes, or were overloaded with tech. We finally caught up to him and another quarian, Kal'Reegar. Shepard just looked back at us and told us to cover him. I got on a sniper perch while the other two flanked to the left, and Shepard ran down the center. I don't remember seeing much, it was way too fast, but I swear he ripped the Colossus that was standing guard apart with his bare hands, and then proceeded to completely knock the door down to get Tali. Both Zaeed and I called him crazy, whilst Grunt roared in awe at his battlemasters prowess."_

"Damn man that certainly puts into perspective what he would do to keep her safe."

"_You have no idea."_

"Sorry Garrus, but Mr. Vega here has to help me with the shuttle. I'm sure you can talk another time," Cortez called out while approaching the bench. James held the look of disappointment while Garrus simply chuckled.

"_Sure Cortez, these damn guns still need calibrating anyway."_

James shut off his omni-tool with a huff. "So what is it this time Esteban."

"You know you shouldn't talk about Chief behind his back."

"We're not saying anything bad, just pointing out that he is odd. Kelly at least tries to be social around us."

Cortez just shook his head. "They're soldiers too James. Maybe it's something like PTSD."

"We could always try to get him drunk, just to see if he talks."

They both let out a short laugh before heading off to the shuttle. There was always something.

…

Shepard may have grown up on ships, but the blue aura around ships in FTL always seemed beautiful. Though there were some benefits for those planet side. The stars always seemed prettier, actual fresh air, breathtaking landscapes. That's what he wanted to give Tali. Just had to defeat the Reapers to do it. It was the middle of third shift, when most crew were asleep and all seemed calm. Tali was out right next to him, but he couldn't sleep if he tried. Another nightmare.

"I swear they will be the death of me." He mumbled to himself. His omni-tool chimed quietly with a message, which seemed to be from Kelly, asking to meet him on deck 4. He slowly moved from the bed, as not to disturb Tali, and walked toward the door. He ran a hand through his hair quickly and hit the button for deck 4. If would take his mind of things for a bit he was fine.

…

**20 minutes earlier.**

_One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, reload, repeat._

John aimed down the pistol and fired away. Six holographic enemies appeared, six disappeared. He had been doing this for the past few nights. He was getting more than enough sleep before, so now he felt right. Though this holographic training system was little challenge.

"Reset." He called out to EDI.

"May I recommend rest Spartan-117? Most organics require anywhere from six to ten hours of sleep."

"No. Reset."

"Very well, resetting Alliance ground troop hardcore training."

Six more shots reload and repeat and the simulation was once again over.

"Before you tell EDI to reset, maybe you should listen to her."

John spun quickly and raised the pistol once more. All he found was Kelly sitting atop a crate looking at held the same smirk that she always did. He lowered the weapon, before speaking.

"I'm fine Kelly."

Her smirk disappeared before she hopped off the crate, and spoke in a low voice, like she was trying to keep quiet. "No you're not. You're more jumpy and hostile than before. It's not like you."

"I'm fine." At this point he wasn't even looking at her. He had turned back around to clean the pistol before putting it away.

"You're so dense. John, look at me!"

He turned and was fixed with her dagger like stare. When she meant business, there was no other emotion.

"It's like you aren't even trying, that nothing matters. When I look at Shepard and his crew, I see a tight knit family that would gladly die for each other, mission or not. That's something we never had."

"Kelly, how would we know what that is like? We didn't spend our time talking and joking, like normal people. We were trained into killers. Into soldiers to protect humanity."

"There you go again about how we are just soldiers, and we have to do anything and everything to complete the mission, like we are expendable. Like we are machines not people."

Cortana's voice immediately filled his head, and he shut his eye's, trying to forget her, and what happened. Kelly didn't let up.

"You want to know why you were Halsey's favorite. Because they didn't just break you like the rest of us. They destroyed whatever sliver of humanity you had left." And with that she stormed off back to their room.

John was speechless; he didn't even try to go after her. He simply picked up the weapon and fired again and again. No target this time.

…

**Present time**

The elevator doors opened onto Deck 4. The lights in the shuttle bay were dark, except for a few. Kelly had her back turned to him and was looking out into the bay.

"Everything alright Kelly?"

She turned her head to look at him. He couldn't tell if she was sad, or tired, but it was definitely one of the two.

"Oh Commander, yes I-I don't know. John and I got into an argument and I stormed off. I thought you could talk some sense into him."

He raised an eyebrow, confused at how she thought that he could resolve this. "Okay. Where is he?"

She nodded towards the shuttle bay, where he could swear he heard gunshots. Shepard turned around and headed back into the elevator for the quick ride down to the bay. His suspicions were correct when he saw chief standing there with a smoking gun in hand. And a few new bullet holes in the bay doors.

"Everything okay Chief?"

He just stood there, looking out at nothing in particular. "She's right. I'm not human any more."

"Chief?"

"What they did to us, what we became. It's inhuman."

"Who did what to you?"

"ONI. They took all of us, the Spartan-II's, when we were six years old. Taught us, pushed us, beat us sometimes. When we were ten they augmented us, and pushed us even further. Only about seventy five of us made it. I went on my first high risk mission when I was twelve. They had broken us."

"And because of all that you feel that you aren't human anymore?"

Chief finally looked away, but still didn't bother to look at him. "There more to it, but that's how it started."

"I know how you feel, Chief. It's not easy." Shepard said solemnly.

"And just how would you know, Shepard." John finally looked back at him with a hard stare, almost daring him to answer. Shepard didn't even falter.

"Because when I died, I spent two years on a lab table, being put back from scratch. I probably have more tech inside me than there is in this ship. And now I'm forced to make decisions that effect millions if not billions of lives. How could I go through all that, all this without thinking that I'm barely human anymore. The reason I don't is because I have friends, family that dust me off and give me hope and strength."

John looked away once more, thinking about what had just been said. Shepard eased up a bit.

"You obviously care for Kelly, John. Don't push away her, friends, because you think it might make you weak. There are always those on the ship for you to talk to."

Shepard left without another would and went back to the elevator. John pondered what had just been said. And there was a lot to think about.


End file.
